Izel sat on his navy blue couch, looking at the blank word document on his laptop. He needed to write, and yet no words came to him. Come on, Obsidian, think! He thought, using his title without thinking. It had been three hundred years since he left his Clan, and yet he could remember it like it happened just yesterday. It wasn't a memory he was fond of, but suddenly he thought that if he wrote it down, relived it, perhaps it would help him get past it.

Going along with the idea, he began to type, words quickly filling the document.

The year is 1709. The sky is thick with black smoke, the air filled with the scent of blood and burning wood. Arrows are flying, some lit by fire, some shot by my own Clan and some by the Clan that we were facing.

I was born to be a mage, not a warrior, and so I was cowering in the panic room of the house. Only one story underground, surrounded by thick stone and concrete. My baby sister was with me, a mere two year old, one who had only just had a title chosen for her. A title that she would not be able to bear until she turned one hundred, though I couldn't help but be jealous of. All of my family had Silver in their title, because of the gray eyes that ran through the family. Mine was Silver Obsidian, and the baby girl's was Silver Sapphire.

But at the time, I was not thinking of my title or my sister's. I was too busy carefully wrapping my body around my shaking sister, who was sobbing quietly into my chest, and trying to hear through the stone if anyone was coming near the panic room. My mother had sent me down here, instructing me to make sure the baby girl lived. I felt bad, but mostly scared. My poor sister hadn't even received a proper name yet. I made a silent promise to give her a name if we survived this.

There was a crashing sound, loud enough for me to hear clearly, and then everything from above was silent. You could have heard a pin drop. My sister's sobbing had finally ceased, and she looked less terrified now and more confused. I gently pet the top of her head, my hand running over the soft fur of her blue ears and the silky blue hair a couple times before I slowly stood, lifting her up with me. I looked at the hatch for a moment before carefully reaching up and twisting the lock, using my free arm to hold my sister on my hip.

I slowly pushed the hatch open and set my baby sister on the ground. She looked up at me with those big silver eyes, confused. I put a finger to my lips, quieting her, and then slowly climbed the short ladder to poke my head out of the hatch. First, my black fox ears just hovered inside the rim, listening for any sounds that would indicate it was not yet safe to come out.

Nothing. Silence.

I carefully looked out, but immediately regretted it. The floor of my once-beautiful house was littered with the dead, bloody bodies of my Clan, my family. Everyone that I knew a loved. Gone.

I fought the urge to burst into tears quickly went back down to get my sister. I had learned a good amount of spells, and I happened to know a blindfold one. I cast it on the poor child, whose tail was now twitching from her nervousness. She looked around blindly, not being able to see a thing. I felt bad, but I knew she couldn't see what was out there. I could only hope she wouldn't recognize the scent of blood just yet.

I instructed her to hold onto my back, and when she didn't understand, I told her to pretend to be a baby koala bear. This satisfied her, and she held onto my back as I rose from out of the panic room once more.

I fought to ignored the stench as I slowly made my way through the room. The entire house was littered with bodies, and as I passed them, I could recognize some of them, while some were completely foreign to me. With every face I could put a name to, my heart felt like it was being crushed. They were all gone.

Akiyo, one of my older brothers, Suzume, one of my closest friends, even my mother and father could be accounted for. I told myself not to cry, over and over, repeating it like a silent mantra. I had to be strong, for my sister.

As soon as I had left the house, I found the cause for the crashing sound I had heard. There was a spot where it looked like a bomb had gone off, and all who had not been killed by the shock wave must have been killed by the shrapnel.

Most of the bodies were strangers now, probably from the rival Clan and not my own. I still would not cry. I couldn't, I wouldn't.

As soon as I was away from the bodies, away from the horrible sight, I started running. I kept both arms carefully latched onto my sister's legs so that she wouldn't fall as I ran away from the death, the blood. I just couldn't stand it.

Why did they do it? Why would that rival Clan be so intent on killing my Clan that they killed every member of theirs in the process? Why?

I would never understand. I just knew I had to run.

I ran all day, then camped with my sister during the night, then ran the entire next day. I kept running until I reached a city, where I worked for a while to get some money before leaving with my sister did this for a few years before we finally settled into an apartment in New York City, New York.

I gave myself a new name, Izel, and named my sister, who was now seven, Xipil. I love that name. It means, 'Noble one'. And for what she survived, I think she's earned the title of noble.

Izel sat back and looked at the thousand-some-odd words that now covered his screen. It felt good to finally get it off his chest, to finally tell someone, even if it was just his laptop. He quickly saved the document, then looked at the time.

Gods, he thought. It's already three in the morning. I was writing for that long? He shook his head, running a hand through his inky black hair. It tickled his black furry ears, but he ignored it as he stood and closed the laptop, then lay down on the couch. He was too tired to get up and go to bed, so instead he stretched out on the couch on his stomach, falling into a peaceful slumber that Xipil didn't dare interrupt in the morning.

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